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“Discovered the value of India”: Tharoor on symbolism of multi-nation tour
The Congress MP said Gandhi tributes and warm receptions across Latin America showed a “rediscovery of India’s value” and global respect.
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Lalit K Jha - Thu, 05, Jun 2025
- 01:21 EDT
- 18
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. / Courtesy of Lalit K Jha
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on June 4 said that he “discovered the value of India to the world" at a media briefing held at the Indian Embassy in Washington, where a cross-party parliamentary delegation addressed Indian and American press at the end of its multi-nation tour.
Speaking about symbolic moments from the trip, Tharoor said, “In every place we've gone to... we have been paying tribute to the [Gandhi] statue.”
“It’s a reminder to the world that we are a land of peace and non-violence. We don't desire war, we don't seek it. But if it is thrust upon us, we will face it with courage. And Mahatma Gandhi taught us all not to live in fear—and we will not live in fear.”
The delegation included MPs across party lines and visited Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil. Tharoor said that while it would be “invidious” to single out one engagement, the warmth across the board had been overwhelming.
“In Guyana, the entire establishment met us—president, former president now vice president, the prime minister, 11 members of the cabinet at a dinner in our honor, the speaker of the National Center. It was extraordinary,” Tharoor said.
In Panama, the Indian delegation met leaders who expressed strong bilateral support. “One of the things the foreign minister wanted... was to have an IIT,” Tharoor noted. “He said, ‘When can you bring an IIT to Panama?’”
In Colombia, the group met with a broad group of stakeholders from a leading think tank. “They had academics, journalists, business people, entrepreneurs, bankers—the whole cross-section. And they're all gung-ho on India,” Tharoor said.
“For us, I suppose it would be right to call it a revelation... it was a rediscovery of how much India and India’s participation in their economies and their growth... comes right across.”
In Brazil, Tharoor said the vice president personally recalled an Indian company opening an aluminum plant in his state. “He wants Indian businesses to come. I can't tell you—everywhere we went, it's been like this.”
“What has been gratifying is the sense that not only did we get our message across... but we also discovered, through our presence, the reaffirmation of the value of India to the world.”
Other members of the delegation shared moments that stood out. Shashank Mani Tripathi mentioned a Colombian congressman who wore Indian attire and got married in India, and being hosted at Guyana’s National Day celebration.
Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu highlighted that the President of Guyana had quoted Rabindranath Tagore in his Independence Day speech.
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya recalled a cultural exchange in Panama: “When Dr. Tharoor gifted a shawl from Kashmir to the speaker of the Panamanian assembly, she in turn gifted a jaguar sculpture and said, ‘This is to give you strength in your fight against terrorism.’”
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